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617 Managing Safety and Health- General Industry
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Safety and Health Education

Safety and health education, through general instruction and technical training, is important for informing workers and managers about workplace hazards and controls so they can work more safely and be more productive.

Safety and health education provides workers and managers with a greater understanding of the safety and health program.

What are successful safety education strategies?

  • General safety instruction tells employees why safety is important through lectures, videos, discussion, etc.
  • Technical safety training shows them how to do the task or procedure safely. Technical training requires demonstration and practice to make sure workers gain the required skills to work safely.
  • On-the-Job Training (OJT) is one of the most effective methods used to teach and verify skills.

It is important to emphasize both instruction and technical training. If employees do not know why safety is important, they are less likely to care about working safely.

Safety and health education also provides workers and managers with a greater understanding of the safety and health program itself, so they can contribute to its development and implementation.

Effective safety and health education programs have the following characteristics:

  • All workers are trained to understand how the program works and how to carry out their assigned responsibilities under the program.
  • Employers, managers, and supervisors receive training on safety concepts and their responsibilities to protect workers' rights and respond to workers' reports and concerns.
  • All workers are trained to recognize workplace hazards and to understand the control measures that are implemented.

Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.

1-6. Which of the following is one of the most effective technical safety training methods?